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Daniel Rand (Earth-616)
Real Name: Daniel Thomas Rand-K'ai (known as Daniel Thomas Rand in the United States) Nicknames: Danny, Living Weapon, Young Dragon Aliases: Daredevil, Cooper Peyton Status Occupation: Warrior, professional bodyguard and detective Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record, citizen of K'un-L'un Identity: Publicly known Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Wendell Rand-K'ai (father, deceased) Heather Duncan Rand (Silver Dragon, mother, deceased), Yu-Ti (adopted uncle), Miranda Rand-K'ai (Death Sting, half-sister), Lord Tuan (adopted paternal grandfather, deceased), Lady Ming (adopted paternal grandmother, deceased), Thomas Duncan (maternal grandfather) Affiliations:New Avengers, Heroes for Hire, Inc., Secret Defenders, Defenders, Misty Knight, Luke Cage Base of Operations: New York Origin Origin: Danny Rand attained the level of Iron Fist. Place of Birth: K'un-L'un First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #15 History Daniel Rand was the son of businessman Wendell Rand, who had once lived in the fabled city of K'un-L'un, which exists in an other dimensional realm. Wendell Rand-K'ai, as he was known there was the eldest son and heir of Lord Tuan, who ruled K'un-L'un, in the guise of the August Personage in Jade. However, Wendell was driven from K'un-L'un by his brother, who not only wanted to rule K'un-L'un himself, but who was Wendell's rival for the love of a woman named Shakirah. It was Wendell that Shakirah chose, and she bore him a daughter, Miranda. Wendell found refuge on Earth and became a successful businessman in the United States. In his absence, Tuan died and Wendell's brother succeeded him as Yu-Ti, the August Personage in Jade. Wendell married a woman named Heather, who bore him a son, Daniel. Wendell sought to return to K'un-L'un, which ordinarily was only accessible from Earth through an interdimensional nexus that opened once every ten years. When Daniel was nine, his father traveled to Tibet along with Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum in search of the nexus to K'un-L'un. Toppling off a treacherous mountain passage, Daniel dragged his mother and father over the ice shelf with him. While he and his mother landed on a ledge below, his father dangled over the sheer drop of the mountainside and called to his partner for help. Hoping to take over Rand's share of the business, Meachum instead caused him to lose his grip and plunge to his death. Though Meachum offered to help Heather Rand and her son, they spurned him. Attempting to make it back to camp on their own, Heather and her son spied a long suspension bridge as a pack of wolves attacked. Heather tried to hold them off long enough for her son to get to safety and was killed in the effort. Soon thereafter, denizens of K'un-L'un found the boy and took him to their city. There Daniel was brought before Yu-Ti, who had secretly plotted the murder of both Wendell and Heather. Yu-Ti apprenticed Daniel to the martial arts master Lei Kung the Thunderer. Rand's training under Lei Kung was rigorous. At age sixteen Rand earned the Crown of Fu-Hsi, king of the vipers, vanquished four foes in the ritualistic Challenge of the Many, and defeated Shu-Hu, a mechanical being whose name means "Lightning." Rand diligently conditioned his hands by thrusting them into tubs of hot sand, then gravel, and finally rock. At age nineteen Rand was given the opportunity to gain the power of the Iron Fist. He was sent to battle the enormous fire-breathing serpent called Shou-Lao the Undying which lived in a cave outside the city and which ferociously guarded a brazier containing its heart, which had mystically been removed from its body. In their battle Rand grabbed the serpent's body, which bore a scar which imprinted itself upon Rand's chest. Killing the serpent, Rand plunged his hands into the now unguarded brazier containing Shou-Lao's molten heart when he was through his hands shone with a quasi-mystical force and he earned the title "Iron Fist," for he could now summon superhuman energy to reinforce the power of blows struck by his hands. Declining to stay in K'un-L'un eternally, Rand returned to America when the nexus reopened in order to take vengeance on Meachum for his father’s death. While recovering from severe frostbite in the Himalayas, Meachum learned of Rand's training at K'un-L'un, and returned to America as an invalid to await Rand. Clad in the ceremonial garb of Iron Fist, Rand finally confronted Meachum but took pity on the invalid and spared him. Minutes later, however, a mysterious ninja murdered Meachum. Blamed for the murder, Iron Fist undertook the mission of finding the ninja and clearing his own name. Eventually Iron Fist succeeded in both tasks. Iron Fist was befriended by Professor Lee Wing and his daughter Colleen, a private investigator. Eventually Daniel Rand became the lover of her partner; Misty Knight. Although Harold Meachum's daughter Joy and brother Ward long mistakenly sought vengeance on Iron Fist for Harold's death, Daniel finally made peace with Joy Meachum. Daniel claimed his inheritance as a full partner in Rand-Meachum, Inc., thus becoming a millionaire. However, Rand allowed Joy Meachum to manage the business. His activities as Iron Fist had led him to become a crimefighter, and eventually he chose to devote his time to acting as the partner of Luke Cage, alias Power Man, in their firm Heroes for Hire, Inc. Through this firm Cage and Rand accepted jobs as special bodyguards or detectives. One day Iron Fist used his superhuman healing power to try to cure a young boy named Bobby Wright of his terminal disease. The disease was a side effect of the exposure to radiation that enabled Wright to transform himself into an adult superhuman being who called himself Captain Hero. Iron Fist went into a trance outside Wright's hospital room in an attempt to rest after the effort of trying to heal him. In another attempt to help Wright, duplicates of Kree "nega-bands" were placed on his wrists. As a result Wright suffered intense pain. Transforming into Captain Hero, he struck Iron Fist repeatedly, desperately trying to bring him out of his trance. Misjudging his superhuman strength, Captain Hero instead seemingly killed Iron Fist before disappearing himself. During a return visit to K'un-L'un, however, Rand was exposed to deadly radiation and was diagnosed with cancer. Almost immediately after, he was kidnapped by the H'ylthri, ancient alien enemies of K'un-L'un who planned an invasion of Earth. A plant-matter clone of Rand briefly took his place in the real world, unknown to his friends. When the clone was killed during a particular mission, Luke Cage was blamed for the murder. Cage was soon exonerated, but their hero-for-hire business was effectively dismantled. Some time after this, the alien Super-Skrull duplicated Rand's likeness, fully assuming his identity in order to use the Rand Corporation and gain economic control of the Antarctic paradise known as the Savage Land. This conflicted with the plans of another company, Oracle Inc., owned by Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor, Namorita, and Misty Knight confronted Super-Skrull, who, his plans ruined, abandoned Rand's identity and fled. The assembled heroes set out on a search for the real Danny Rand, eventually freeing him from the H'ylthri with the help of Namor and the sorcerer Dr. Strange. Rand had found himself cured of his cancer due to his chi meditations when in stasis with the H'ylthri. Following the seeming deaths of most of Earth's heroes at the hands of the sentient psionic menace known as Onslaught, the duo decided to expand the membership of Heroes for Hire. The agency merged with Oracle Inc. - the corporation owned by Prince Namor, the Atlantean Sub-Mariner - to protect the world from danger, for a price. The original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, lined up the jobs; Iron Fist acted as field commander. The team rarely collected its fee, however, and eventually disbanded when Namor saw fit to diffuse Oracle Inc. Hoping to share the wisdom of his other-dimensional homeworld with humanity, Iron Fist initiated a summoning spell to call K'un-L'un to Earth. Tied to his heartbeat, the kingdom eventually would materialize - merging with whatever city he occupied at the time. But Junzo Muto, teenage leader of the secret cult of martial artists called the Hand, forcibly seized the power of the Iron Fist prior to K'un-L’un's arrival. He then drew the hero to Japan so the kingdom would materialize in the midst of modern-day Tokyo. Aided by the feral X-Man known as Wolverine and a number of the planet's mightiest heroes, Iron Fist put down Junzo's plan and halted the amalgamation of the two cities. However, he was unable to reclaim the power of the Iron Fist. Later, one of Iron Fist's and the Black Panther’s enemies, Nightshade, resurrected the Black Dragon in hopes to control it against the Black Panther. She set the dragon on a mission to capture Panther's U.S. State Department handler, Everett K. Ross. However, the Black Dragon had plans of his own. Instead of capturing Ross, he switched bodies with Ross, for his own purposes. When this was discovered by the Black Panther, the Panther set out to destroy the Dragon's eggs. Not wishing to engage the Panther directly, the Dragon confronted Iron First, restoring the power of his iron fist by using a small favor borrowed from the Dragon's gods and creating an imbalance in his psyche that would brainwash Iron First into fighting the Panther. By a narrow margin, the Panther was able to render him unconscious, which helped restore him to his right mind. The Dragon battled both heroes directly and was ultimately defeated. Iron Fist continues to work with Luke Cage. The two investigated a virus attack on the Rand Corporation, leading to a confrontation with the BAD Girls, Cable, and Deadpool. Daniel was hired to pose as Daredevil while Matt was imprisoned. As Daredevil he was part of Captain America's "Secret Avengers", and was imprisoned in "42." He has most recently been seen as a member of the New Avengers alongside his old partner Luke Cage. Characteristics Height: 5'11" Weight: 175 lbs (80 kg) Eyes: Blue Hair: Blond Unusual Features: No unusual features Powers Strength Level: Iron Fist possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. Through concentration iron Fist is able to summon his chi (a Chinese word for one's natural energy) to spiritually reinforce his normal abilities, raising them to the peak of human capability. This includes strength, speed, stamina, and concentration, as well as self healing ability and psychic rapport with others. By summoning his chi and focusing it into his hand, he can draw upon the superhuman energy derived from the heart of the mystic serpent Shou-Lao and make his fist inhumanly powerful and impervious to pain and injury. This "iron fist" technique does not involve a physical transformation of any kind, simply a psychic channeling of concentrated natural energy. With his fist in this state, Iron Fist can shatter wood and brick, deform steel, and punch his opponents with extraordinary concussive force without sustaining injury to himself. The act of summoning and using his chi for the iron fist technique mentally drains him afterward, and it can take him any period up to an entire day to recover before he can use it again. The Iron Fist grants Danny with many abilities that he has possibly not yet learned, such as channeling the Shou-Lao chi into a ranged weapon, such as a gun or bow, to increase its striking capabilities; this techinique is used both by Orson Randall and Wu Ao-Shi. Also another ability demonstrated by Orson Randall is hypnosis, Danny has mastered this ability according to himself after being shown it. Iron Fist can also utilize the combination of his own chi and his superhuman energy to heal his own injuries or to cure his own illnesses. By projecting this energy into another person, he can heal that person. Iron Fist can use his superhuman power to fuse his consciousness temporarily with that of another person. This technique is called "mind melding." Known Abilities: Iron Fist is a master of the martial arts of K'un-L'un and is also extremely adept at gymnastics and acrobatics. Even without the Iron Fist Danny can be considered one of the most skilled unarmed combatants in the Marvel Universe Miscellaneous Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: No known transportation. Weapons: No known weapons. Notes & Trivia * Character created by: Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Recommended Readings * Related Articles * Luke Cage See Also * Character Gallery: * Appearances of * Quotations by External Links * A profile of his father Wendell Rand-K'ai * A profile of his mother Heather Duncan Rand, Silver Dragon * Iron Fist movie entry on the Internet Movie Database References * Marvel Directory ---- Category:Characters Category:Living Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Good Characters Category:Secret Identity Category:Secret Defenders members Category:Heroes for Hire members Category:New Avengers members Category:Copy Edit